Un test complet effectué par le site Hifi.nl avec 4 Phantom (2 white 2 silver)L'article est en néerlandais http://www.hifi.nl/artikel/23725/Recensie-Devialet-Phantom-en-Silver-Phantom.htmlEt voici sa traduction en anglais. What else can you add as a reviewer in August 2015 to all there - even on this, and these pages - is already written about the Devialet Phantom. Since the introduction of the press 'tout le monde' in December 2014 the French about this miracle of audiophile innovation and tumbling one over each other to proclaim this unique system to the best thing since the invention of sliced ​​bread. All that to my knowledge has not yet been done is a professional head-to-head with the two different versions of the Phantom. High time that something changes ...

The Phantom (the French do not otherwise affect the article away and call him simply Phantom, but that aside) seems to me the widest-ranging marketing campaign in the hi-fi industry got all time. An Apple-ian footing schedule with carefully timed semi-revelations that increased the mystery actually rather than dampened, with the final presentation at the end of 2014. I was there (unfortunately), but Mr René van Es and other professional colleagues reported a almost astonishing listening experience. That made my curiosity about the presentation at the High End in Munich there this year only increased. About this presentation I will, out of respect for what the brand has achieved in a relatively short time, very short and euphemism, he was disappointing. Why I do not know, and I do not actually think about. For that I am too impressed by the amazing listening session I had earlier this week at the Devialet Store in 's-Gravenmoer ...Phantoms If all you want to configure connected to the mains and bringing them to life through a gentle touch on the convex top (another ingenious detail, sorry, that word will fall even more, I'm afraid) and thus in setup fashion puts them begin to produce a soft and slightly thin sound that still concerns me most resembles a sort of ghostly choir. Matching the name Phantom? Certainly!

SPARKThe Spark app Devialet installed on the iMac Michel then we see appear the four Phantoms. There you specify whether you want to use them solo or as a stereo pair. By clicking them on the screen identifying the Phantoms themselves by having a brief hearing and click here to flap their woofers. So you see if you click on the left or right copy and then you can drag it to the correct position in the app. The app indicates that he is ready to configure with 'Let's Play Some Music' display screen. In the next screen you get your system from containing not only your Phantoms, but also your sources. The software looks for connected devices to share music files, but you can also enter the path itself.

The app lets you control your Phantoms so called Spark. The design and layout are beautiful and the service is fairly intuitive, though I would find it useful to itself and find the volume slider in each screen would not only play screen, but I think that's a question of getting used to. The unique feature of this system is that each device on which you open the Spark app (which can also be your smartphone or tablet) as a source automatically returns in the entire system. Your phone or tablet that not only serves as a remote control, but you can also play music stored on it. So I could with my iPhone 6 play music from the iPhone 6+ Michel or the other ... No hassle with Bluetooth or Airplay, just maximum resolution via your wireless network. And yes, I was still passable ... you guessed it ...

ListenTo listen I had a USB stick containing a piece or 50 tracks from my folder "nice for review. These are good to very good recorded tracks musically attractive stabbing each other. Here we encounter one of the few real drawbacks of the Phantom. There is no ability to play music directly from a USB stick. I think that - in 2015 - surely a missed opportunity, but it is no different. The same applies to a NAS. Which also must be elsewhere in your network, and can not be connected directly. Details, but still ... The music was transferred fast enough on the iMac Michel, after which he was immediately visible in the Spark app. I grumble there quite often, but this is definitely one of the benefits of UPnP / DLNA for streaming: you do not need to index because the Player app looks directly into the designated music folder. I could really fast start so finally ...

the SetupI could get the Phantom home for this review, and I am the last to deny that I had best ears to it. But in consultation with importers D & D Audio I decided to retreat to the Devialet Store out because the plan which germinated in Munich and in the following months could be performed matured much better over there: a comparative listening session which would examine whether there are differences in view between the Phantom (the 'white' version) and the Silver Phantom. I could go for it better than Michel Keijner, which not only boasts a superb listening room, but also about all the technical know-how about this product?

René van Es has entered in his account of the introduction already quite extensive in Paris on the technical design of the Phantom, and I think that it is therefore a waste of time to to devote attention here again. The only nuance I want to make is that the Phantom and the Phantom Silver in my view differ from one another more points than the capacity of the built RDA ™ amplifiers and color of the woofers. The woofers in the Silver Phantom are not the same as those in the White Phantom. How this works exactly, I do not know and Devialet is not very forthcoming with information, but it is a fact that the return of the Silver Phantom as much as 6 dB higher than that of the Phantom. You can see not only the 6 dB higher SPL that is in the official specifications (99 vs. 105dB at 1 meter), but you also hear when you switch while keeping the volume in the same app. The Silver Phantom sounds clearly louder than his white brother.

To me familiar with the simplicity and genius (yes, I said ...) of the set-Michel shows me a complete configuration. Because there are multiple Phantoms to be controlled is the need Dialog, a small and beautifully designed box that you connect to your wireless router. The Phantom namely works primarily wireless. But if you are driving a lot of time (it can be paired with up to 24 Dialog) Dialog has also a support system that sends data over the electricity network. This system known as PLC (Power Line Communication) follows the HomePlugAV protocol and has a bandwidth of 500Mbs.

Anyway, the Dialog is basically a computer that controls everything with regard to the network of all Phantoms and music sources in your network. He does not have WiFi on board but relies on an external wireless router. According to Michel, it is of great importance in order not to save on this router. He himself used an ASUS RT-AC68U because of the possibility of granting very simple priority to certain devices connected to the setup thereof. So you sure you do always have the best possible wireless connection to your Phantoms.

Since the Silver Phantoms already on the speaker stands were (these were of Dynaudio's own stands Devialet come in the fall until the market) we started it. The Silver Phantom internationally by far the most tested and selling model, and I understand why. The extra cost to the white Phantom is only 300 euros each and there you get a hit for more power. 3000 watts at 750 in the 'smaller' model.

That psychological value is hard to resist. Moreover, there is the power of the sum of the peak powers of the four RDA ™ amplifiers are in each Phantom. But of course 750 watts of peak power per driver, of course, still an impressive value. The by Devialet developed SAM-technology (Speaker Active Matching), wherein the electrical coupling is optimized between the amplifier and loudspeaker, works at the Phantom over the entire frequency range, where it is in the already existing Expert series (120, 200, 400 and 800) operates only below 150Hz. This gives ultimate control over any of the four speaker units; The two woofers, the midrange, which is a roughly two centimeters wide ring around the tweeter and the tweeter itself.

The first track I choose the number Inktman Henk Hofstede, from the soundtrack to the NITS foreman made his video installation The Portable House (shown at the Biennale in Lyon in 2001). What is immediately striking is the sheer spaciousness of the view. The spherical shape of the Phantom, in combination with the point source is created by the placement of the speakers, ensures that the loudspeaker really completely disappears from the image. The voice of Hofstede for his sometimes do not include quite dry, it added galmpje is quite good as a type of spatial aura to hear him and it gives the vote a huge tangibility. The harmonic structure of the piano in the background can be heard and there is plenty of heat. However, so far is still not that I out of my chair thunder of surprise. That changed after exactly 23 seconds as a low bass note and a blow to a deep drum exactly the same time of the Phantom woofers one and a half centimeters jump to do outside.

Devialet Phantom

The impact of the blow makes me cringe slightly. Where does the hell it low from? Three seconds later: BOEMMM! And again, and again ... Around 50 seconds begins to play a synthesizer and the sound seems far left and right to get next to the speakers. Hmm ... At 1'08 starts high but steadily decreasing scale that at 1'14 and 1'26 is intersected by a series of hard tap on something that could be a metal railing, which pops ultra-dynamic from the speakers. Meanwhile, the tone charger decreases further and further in order to end up at the absolute bottom of the frequency spectrum. It is an exaggeration to say that on my half drunk espresso again forms a crema layer, but I can not think of any better metaphor for the real putdiepe and super tight low.

I was obviously a bit prepared by the stories of my colleagues, but I well imagine it myself so I can hear their bewilderment me. Every fiber in me screams that this is impossible. Here is tampered with the laws of nature, from such a small enclosure can not get such low. And not only so deep and tight, as well as accurate and colorful. Each individual tone is distinguishable. Traditional speakers would sometimes suffer from what one-note bass "is called, a phenomenon that may be caused inter alia by a poorly tuned bass port, and thus low at every show exactly the same 'hoenk' inherits that any change frequency completely drowns. This phenomenon is at the Silver Phantom completely absent, to be delivered in low that this comes out is really weird 'clean' no to 'grunt'. I dare me usually not like this kind of bold statements, but I dare say that you should come with a very large and costly traditional passive loudspeaker and appropriate reinforcement to approach this layer. Seriously ...

So the Phantom has four amplifiers of approximately 190 watts per unit on board, which is still more than enough to play undistorted music at a fairly loud level. Because I wanted to listen first, competition, we switch after only one track on the Phantom. Fortunately, they are not really heavy and the Spark app is very fast and accurately select the other speaker pair. I did indeed hear the Phantom plays softer than the Silver Phantom, so I turn the volume higher. The display differs more points from that of the Phantom Silver than I expected. What remains is the fantastic image. But the overall appearance of the Phantom is more even than that of its big brother. The layer is a little less deep (but still astonishingly good quality) and the central area thus seems to sound just a bit warmer in the tonal balance. While I have the volume within half a dB level with the previous listening passage gives the white Phantom a quieter sound. Or less spectacular, it's just how you approach it. I have to bite very hard on my cheek lining to force myself not immediately in the "more is better" shooting mode and the Silver Phantom with its additional cost of "only" 300 euros each immediately from the first track to winner to call.

A winner designate I was anyway not going, because I think the reader must primarily themselves determine the phantom sounds tastiest, but the twisted psychology huh ... While running one track after another and meanwhile regularly Phantom change occurs very slowly a sort of list of advantages of both models in my head. So the Phantom has a little more peace and provides for longer listening more uniform impression. If you like classic keeps it nice to know that the Phantom in particular violins and piano what rounder and - to my ears at least - more comfortable viewing. With a little more warmth and just a little less luster, sometimes on the scratchy may make some very detailed shots. The Silver Phantom has more drive, leave several lines in the music better loose hear from each other and have more power in the lower, more dynamic impact. If you're deep in the music will creep Silver Phantom gives you more insight, but if you want to listen long and relaxed and a richer midrange can appreciate win the Phantom. All with a nose by the way, I can not emphasize enough.

ConclusionI can not escape to join me at the large group of (international) colleagues who crosses praise the Devialet Phantom. The concept and technical design are fantastic, the implementation is (for details after) spotless, and the implications this may have for the system development of high quality but in any event accessible (streaming) audio should definitely not be underestimated. Although I still see a significant role for the more traditional fidelity I realize at the same time I can not think of any system with separate components that around and close to 3,700 euros (the price of two white Phantoms and Dialog) drop what Devialet here sounds. Let alone what the Silver Phantom there still adds up points. That's a lot to argue, but I mean it. Groundbreaking is another word that must be dealt with great economy, but for the Phantom I say it. Groundbreaking and (is-ie weather) genius.

I conclude further that there are differences between the Phantom and the Phantom Silver, and that it is extremely tempting to give in to the temptations of the higher capacity and more pronounced view. But I am convinced that there are people who, even though they are deep in their hearts actually nicer the Phantom, opt for the Silver Phantom because it is so little expensive. Do not get me wrong, both in the Devialet Phantom and the Phantom Silver Devialet buy a weird sound system, but each has its own charms. Let me put it finally so if the opportunity existed to - as with the Expert series - to connect a turntable to the Phantom, I could live very well with it if I had to replace my complete set for a pair this miracle capsules. Which version I would choose, I leave a bit in the middle. Maybe because I'm from there itself not quite. But what I do know is that the Devialet Phantom vibrate the hi-fi world to its foundations ...